People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 June 1894 — BOYCOTT BEGINS. [ARTICLE]

BOYCOTT BEGINS.

Railway Unions’ Fight with the Pullman Company Opens. The Illinois Central System Is the Point of Attack—Trains Blocked at Chicago—Switchmen and Other Employes Go Out. TIED UP. Chicago, June 27.—At 1 o'clock this morning the officials of the Illinois Central railroad gave out the information that their line from Chicago to New Orleans had been tied up by the secession of every switchman in their employ. All the towermen, switchtenders and switching engine crews in Chicago and suburbs struck at midnight. The report was also given out that the Western Indiana road would be tied up. The main suburban service of the road was operated up to midnight, and it was understood at that time that President Debs, of the American Railway union, had given instructions that the strike should not be extended to the suburban service at present. Freight service in the yards had ceased entirely and what switches were being thrown were operated by officials. The express fov Sioux City at 11:35 o'clock left without any trouble over the Air Line. It was the expectation of the officials that the men remaining in train service would strike to-day, as that was the common report.

The boycott against the cars of the Pullman company went into effect in Chicago Tuesday noon, and was followed, at a few minutes after 7 o’clock in the evening, by an order for a strike on the part of the switchmen employed in the terminal .yards of the Illinois Central, which means from Kensington to Randolph street in the city. They were followed by the switchtenders* and at midnight were joined by the switch tower operators. This was a surprise to the officials of the road, but it was a well-planned move on the part of Debs, Howard and the other leaders of the anti-Pullman war. They secretly organized these men and resolved to make a test of their strength against the road on which they are strongest and best organized. When the switchmen and tenders went out a mob which soon grew from 600 to 2,000 switchmen, Pullman strikers and sympathizers, gathered at Grand Crossing and stopped all Illinois Central trains but one that attempted to pass. They also stopped the Pennsylvania trains. At 10 o'clock there were nine trains of the former road and six of the latter blockading the tracks centering at Grand Crossing. The switchmen say they have struck in sympathy with the Pullman strikers and in. accordance with the plans of the American Railway union. The mob began to gather at Grand Crossing at 7 o’clock and by 8 o’clock became strong enough to interrupt traffic. No discrimination was shown in the operations of the strikers. Suburban trains, passenger trains, freight trains, everything, whether it carried a Pullman or ; not, was halted by the mob. One Illinois suburban train managed to pull through early in the evening, but after that traffic was completely stopped. Another attempt was made to get an Illinois Central train through, but a man in the crowd threw himself down on the rails in front of the engine and the engineer refused to move the train. The midnight fast-mail trftin on the Michigan Central going out and the incoming fast mail on the Illinois Central were the first trains to feel the effects of the strike of the terminal men. They were both blocked at the Forty-third street tower shortly after midnight. One of Chief Engineer Wallace’s assistants with the depot master and one or two minor officials succeeded in throwing the interlocking switches by hand, releasing the trains at 1:30 o’clock this morning. The same men then began to make up the fast Chicago-New Orleans mail.

President Debs said Tuesday he was perfectly satisfied with the situation and that telegrams he had received from a large number of places indicated that the boycott would be a success. He continued: “I wish to say that it is not the policy of the American Railway union to discommode the publio to any greater extent than is absolutely necessary. It is for this reason that we let Tuesday practically go by default and have decided to begin active operations to-day. The situation is this: The order to boycott the cars of the Pullman company went into effect at 12 o'clock. Prior to that time the companies had made nj> all of their trains for the day, and they had stood on the tracks long enough to fill up with people. If we had started out with those cars and afterward sidetracked them some place we would have been guilty of an unwarrantable act toward the people on the cars and besides would have lost the friendship of many others. Accordingly we gave orders for all trains to go through that were made up prior to 12 o’clock, and those orders have been carried out. “To-day wo expect that there will be a different condition of affairs. The trains will not be made up, and when they are no Pullman cars will be attached to' them. We do not expect to make a general tie-up of the cars of the Pullman company unless such a move shall become absolutely necessary. If we can win by tieing up three or four big trunk lines we will do so.” Dispatches from many cities indicate that the same policy outlined in the above interview with President Debs prevailed on Tuesday, and that, the boycott will actually begin to-day. MAKES” A MILE IN 1:56. John S. Johnson Breaks the World’s Bicycle Record. Waltham, Mass., June 27. —John S. Johnson, of Syracuse, N. Y., Tuesday afternoon rode the fastest mile on the Waltham track ever ridden on a bicycle. Johnson was paced on two tandems to try to beat the world’s record of 2:03 3-5 for the fastest mile ever made in public. This record he himself held on the Waltham track. He not only broke that record, br.t he lowered Windie’s world’s record of 1:56 4-5, made in private last fallen the Springfield track. Johnson made the mile in public Tuesday in 1:50.